What Is Child Abuse and Neglect?

Welcome to Part 2 of our 9 part series on child abuse and neglect. Today, we will be exploring the various types of child abuse and neglect. See the end of today’s article for a complete listing of articles included in this series.

Abuse and neglect are difficult words to define as we will see later in this article when we start to examine the many different kinds of abuse. Let’s look first at what abuse and neglect are according to federal law. In a pamphlet entitled, What Is Child Abuse and Neglect?, the Child Welfare Information Gateway of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services explains that:

“Federal legislation lays the groundwork for State by identifying a minimum set of acts or behaviors that define child abuse and neglect.”

Most laws at the federal and state level cover abuse and neglect inflicted by parents and other child caregivers and do not extend to harm caused by other people which are covered under other statutes. The minimum standards set by federal law define child abuse and neglect as:

Any recent act or failure to act on the part of a parent or caretaker which results in death, serious physical or emotional harm, sexual abuse or exploitation; or

An act or failure to act which presents an imminent risk of serious harm.

These laws are then further refined and explained at the state level. For a listing of abuse and neglect laws for your state, visit the State Statutes Search webpage at The Child Welfare Information Gateway of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. This page allows you to search for a variety of state statutes including the definitions of abuse and neglect.

DEFINING THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF ABUSE AND NEGLECT

Categorizing Child Maltreatment

Child maltreatment is the general term used to encompass both child abuse and child neglect. Child abuse can be generally described as acts of commission which harm a child, and child neglect can generally be described as acts of omission which allow harm to befall a child. The abuse and neglect of children can be further divided into subcategories as follows:

CHILD ABUSE

Emotional Abuse

Physical Abuse

Sexual Abuse

CHILD NEGLECT

Educational Neglect

Emotional Neglect

Medical Neglect

Physical Neglect

Some states would also add abandonment and substance abuse by parents to this list of types of maltreatment. Others would also add failure to supervise (e.g., inadequate supervision or exposure to dangerous environments) to the list of types of neglect. Some sources/statutes would combine these categories. Let’s examine each type of maltreatment listed above a little closer by defining the terms and looking at examples of each type of maltreatment starting with the different types of abuse and then moving on to the different types of neglect.

Emotional Abuse

Emotional abuse, sometimes referred to as psychological abuse, is often difficult to prove and frequently accompanies other types of abuse. Emotional abuse can cause severe damage to a child’s mental health and development, but for a third party, it is often difficult to see because the hurt occurs on the inside not the outside. The pamphlet called Fact Sheet: Emotional Child Abuse,from the organization Prevent Child Abuse America, defines it this way:

Emotional child abuse is maltreatment which results in impaired psychological growth and development. It involves words, actions, and indifference. Abusers constantly reject, ignore, belittle, dominate, and criticize the victims. This form of abuse may occur with or without physical abuse, but there is often an overlap.

Physical abuse is defined as the intentional use of physical force against a child that results in, or has the potential to result in, physical injury.

Physical abuse includes physical acts ranging from those which do not leave a physical mark on the child to physical acts which cause permanent disability, disfigurement, or death. Physical abuse can result from discipline or physical punishment.

Physical discipline, such as spanking or paddling, is not considered abuse as long as it is reasonable and causes no bodily injury to the child.

Sexual Abuse

Although all maltreatment of children is heartbreaking, it is sexual abuse which often makes the headlines and causes us to cringe the hardest. Federal law defines sexual abuse as,

“…the employment, use, persuasion, inducement, enticement, or coercion of any child to engage in, or assist any other person to engage in, any sexually explicit conduct or simulation of such conduct for the purpose of producing a visual depiction of such conduct; or the rape, and in cases of caretaker or inter-familial relationships, statutory rape, molestation, prostitution, or other form of sexual exploitation of children, or incest with children.”

It can include:

Attempted or threatened sexual abuse with physical contact

Child pornography

Child prostitution

Exposure

Failure to supervise child’s voluntary sexual activities

Genital molestation

Incest

Intrusion

Providing sexually explicit materials

Rape

Sexual harassment of a child

Voyeurism

Educational Neglect

Educational neglect is defined as the failure to educate a child or attend to special education needs. Generally it relates to a caregivers’ failure to sufficiently provide for the educational needs of the child.

Examples of educational neglect might include:

Chronic truancy

Encouraging a child under age 16 to drop out of school

Failure to allow or provide needed attention for a diagnosed educational need

Failure to enroll a child in school

Keeping child home without legitimate reason

Emotional Neglect

Emotional neglect is defined as inattention to a child’s emotional needs.

Examples of emotional neglect might include:

Failure to provide psychological care

Inadequate nurture or affection

Inadequate structure

Inappropriate advanced expectations

Inattention to a child’s developmental or emotional needs

Overprotective treatment

Permitting a child to use alcohol or other drugs

Medical Neglect

Medical neglect is failure to provide a child with necessary medical or mental health treatment. Note: For purposes of NIS-4 (the source of the statistics throughout this article), medical neglect is classified as a form of physical neglect.

Examples of medical neglect include:

Failure to administer prescribed medications

Refusal to seek timely medical attention

Physical Neglect

Physical neglect represents a failure to provide a child with necessary food or shelter. A failure to provide adequate supervision and abandonment are sometimes classified as physical neglect as well.

Examples of physical neglect might include:

Abandonment

Health hazards in the home

Inadequate attention to needs for clothing

Inadequate attention to needs for food

Inadequate attention to needs for personal hygiene

Inadequate attention to needs for shelter

Inadequate supervision

Other disregard for child’s physical needs or physical safety

Refusal of custody

Unstable custody arrangements

Abuse and neglect can take many forms. The lists above are certainly not exhaustive, but they do serve as a starting point for recognizing potential forms of abuse and neglect.

Here at Divorce Ministry 4 Kids, we feel that the issue of child abuse and neglect is serious enough to warrant dedicating an entire month to. We hope that you will read all of the articles so that you, and those in your children’s ministry, will be better prepared to deal with this issue which is all too prevalent and disproportionately affects children of divorce and children from single-parent homes. The series includes the following articles:

A pdf file will be posted at the end of the series including information from all nine articles in one comprehensive, not-so-brief, but easy to use format. For those of you who have expertise in this area, or have dealt with abuse and neglect situations in the past, we hope that you will join the conversation by adding your voice to the series through comments on the articles or on our Facebook Page.